Most environmental organizations are not telling their members about how bad global warming actually is. This is because they believe their members would lose hope. They also know that if their email messages to their members are not full of hope, progress being made, and optimism, many members will stop donating...

If you are like me, you must be astounded at the lack of attention and action given to the enormous threat of global warming that could lead to the extinction of so much life on Earth...including our own...

The December 2015 Paris Climate Conference initiated by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) will be attended by leaders of most of the nations of the world. It is being widely touted by scientists, environmental groups as well as progressive global media as our last hope for saving the world from irreversible global warming and the cataclysmic damage caused by the greenhouse effect of carbon and methane pollution of the atmosphere. To achieve this goal at Paris the IPCC has set the target of keeping global warming below 2°Celsius (about 3.7 degrees F.)

Coal-fired power plants have provided cheap energy for over a hundred years, and despite coal-burning’s high emissions, about 2,400 are planned globally. A new study calculates that emissions from global energy generation must reach zero before the middle of the century to keep climate change below a two-degree Celsius temperature rise. Niklas Hohne of the New Climate Institute discusses the study with Living on Earth’s Helen Palmer and explains why building these plants is inconsistent with emissions control commitments countries have given...

Activists have targeted the French owner of the Hazelwood brown-coal power station for its sponsorship of the Paris climate summit, calling on it to accelerate plans for the plant's closure in the spirit of the negotiations to tackle global warming...

But poorest half of world’s people contribute to just 10% of emissions, says British charity as negotiators work on UN climate change deal in Paris. An average person among the richest 1% of people emits 175 times more carbon than his or her counterpart among the bottom 1%, Oxfam said...

Ice broken off from Perito Moreno glacier floats in Los Glaciares national park, part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest ice field in the world, in Santa Cruz, Argentina. Most glaciers in the park have been retreating over the past 50 years due to global warming. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Negotiators in Paris are trying to craft a deal at the UN climate talks that will keep global temperature rise below 2C. But what does that mean in reality - and what difference will a couple of extra degrees really make?

From the Guardian newspaper Australia:

Wind turbines at the Sere Wind farm, close to Vredendal, in South Africa. (RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images)

When it comes to electric power, Africa is still the dark continent. More than half of its 1.1 billion inhabitants lack access to electricity, and Africa’s total generating capacity, from Cairo to Cape Town, is only 160 gigawatts, or about half as much as Japan, a country with one-tenth of its population.

As climate summit participants work to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, hundreds of millions of people are already struggling in a hot, dangerous world.

This week the world’s attention will once again be riveted on Paris as leaders from 195 nations gather for what may be our last chance to reach a global agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions and avoid catastrophic, irreversible climate change.

The man who helped launch the personal computer revolution says the nations of the world aren’t doing nearly enough to boost the search for new energy sources that could help humans avoid a global-warming calamity.

Turn the knobs on a new interactive map and see what future emissions, adaptation strategies...

AFP/Getty Images: A conference attendee looks at a projection of the Earth on Monday, the opening day of the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change, in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris.

The business community is well-represented at the United Nations climate summit underway in Paris — and it will be much more engaged in finding positive solutions than ever before...

During a recent hike in Washington State's Olympic National Park, I marveled at the delicate geometry of frost-covered ferns. White crystalline structures seemed to grow from the green leaves, encasing them in a frozen frame of temporary beauty...

French President Francois Hollande, right, speaks with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as they attend "The Climate Challenge and African solutions" event during the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, north of Paris,Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. (Philippe Wojazer, Pool via AP)

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that parts of the global warming deal being negotiated in Paris should be legally binding on the countries that sign on, setting up a potential fight with Republicans at home...

While Pope Francis has expressed hope that world leaders meeting in Paris for discussions on confronting climate change will find solutions to the problem, he has also said the inaction on the issue up to now is approaching global suicide...

A masked protester walks through smoke Sunday during a clash with French riot police on the Place de la Republique before the opening of an international climate conference in Paris.(Ian Langsdon / European Pressphoto Agency)

Frustrated by a ban on demonstrations during international climate talks, hundreds of protesters clashed with police Sunday in Paris’ Place de la Republique.

World leaders kicked off the two-week climate change summit in France on Monday with warnings that this conference is the most important, and possibly the last, opportunity governments have to make a difference concerning climate change.

Policemen fight with activists during a protest ahead of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference at the place de la Republique, in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015. More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks that start Monday, and activists are holding marches and protests around the world to urge them to reach a strong agreement to slow global warming. (Laurent Cipriani/Associated Press)

France's President Francois Hollande, left, shakes hand with Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, prior to a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015. More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks that start Monday, and activists are holding marches and protests around the world to urge them to reach a strong agreement to slow global warming. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) shows that the climate denial echo chamber organizations funded by ExxonMobil and Koch family foundations produced misinformation that effectively polluted mainstream media coverage of climate science and polarized the climate policy debate.

Oil tankers are seen parked at a yard outside a fuel depot on the outskirts of Kolkata February 3, 2015.

Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri

Almost 200 nations will meet in the French capital on Nov. 30 to try and seal a deal to prevent the planet from warming more than the 2 degrees Celsius that scientists say is vital if the world is to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change...

Water vapor billows from smokestacks at the incineration plant of Ivry-sur-Seine, near Paris, where the World Climate Change Conference is set to begin Nov. 30.

A Yale University survey showed one-fifth of Americans do not think climate change is real, even though there is a near-consensus among scientists that the problem exists. Where does the split come in?

Still reeling from the worst terrorist attacks in French history, Paris will host nearly 140 world leaders gathering next week to spearhead a climate pact tasked with keeping Earth liveable for humanity...

Men work on the site where the upcoming COP21 World Climate Summit will be held at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, November 19, 2015. Reuters/Benoit Tessier

Heads of state invited to climate talks in Paris starting on Nov. 30 have confirmed they will attend even after the Nov. 13 attacks by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people, a French presidency source said.

This graphic provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows land and ocean temperatures for October 2015. Even for a record breaking hot year for Earth, October stood out as absurdly warm. The hottest October on record by a third of a degree over the old mark, a large margin for weather records. (NOAA via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even in a record-breaking hot year for Earth, October stood out as absurdly warm.

This image obtained November 16, 2015 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the satellite sea surface temperature departure for the month of October 2015, where orange-red colors are above normal temperatures and are indicative of El Nino. (AFP Photo/Handout/NOAA)

Matters seem to have escalated in the current dispute between Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

One of the most under-appreciated aspects of the climate change problem is the so-called "fat tail" of risk. In short, the likelihood of very large impacts is greater than we would expect under typical statistical assumptions.

People around the world should protest ‘on behalf of those who can’t’, say organisers of climate march forbidden in light of Paris terror attacks...

U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday said Congress would not approve the Obama administration's $500 million request for its first payment into a United Nations climate fund, a move they said would undermine the upcoming climate change summit in Paris.

Climate change is increasingly understood as an issue of inter-generational justice, and it has become a truism that today's children will bear the brunt of our inaction. In spite of this, children are rarely addressed in climate change policy - or given a seat at the table when climate change agreements are being discussed. In countries around the world, the voice of the generation with the most at risk is mostly unheard...

Don't forget public health at Paris Climate talks: WHO

Livestock is responsible for 65% of all human-related emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas with 296 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, and which stays in the atmosphere for 150 years...

Can the earth be saved by bureaucrats in long meetings, reciting jargon and acronyms while surrounded by leaning towers of documents?

French police conduct a control near the Franco-Italian border in La Turbie, as security increases ahead of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21), France, November 13, 2015.

Reuters/Eric Gaillard

France will limit a U.N. climate summit in Paris starting in two weeks' time to core negotiations and cancel planned marches and concerts after the attacks that killed 129 people, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday.

Paris Mourns but so does our Mother Earth...

President Obama and other world leaders will still meet in Paris later this month, despite the recent spat of terrorist attacks. In fact, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says the meeting is essential, and must go forward...

The Paris climate talks are set to begin at the end of this month. Here’s what you need to know about which nations are involved, what policies they will be hashing out, and what the chances are of substantial progress

The goal of COP-21 – the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) 21st Conference of the Parties – in Paris at the end of November is to produce an international agreement to ensure greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by an amount necessary to prevent a 2 degrees Celsius rise in global average temperature this century. With that as a goal, the conference is doomed to failure. Three reasons why:

Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama still plans to participate in a UN climate conference near Paris in two weeks, despite attacks that killed 128 people in the French capital, a US official told AFP Saturday.

Efforts to foster forests and slow deforestation, which is one of the leading causes of global warming, are largely being glossed over by most nations as they prepare for a historic round of climate negotiations.

US warned that any agreement in Paris will be enshrined in law after secretary of state said it would ‘definitively’ not be a treaty

An island in the Maldives, which is vulnerable to rising seas. Credit: Alessandro Caproni/Flickr

If rich countries don’t agree to help poorer ones recover after storms amplified by global warming tear villages apart, or help communities prosper even as their homes sink into rising seas, climate negotiations in Paris risk being scuttled...

Haze shrouds the Musi River as vehicles drive across the Ampera Bridge in Indonesia. (Dimas Ardian/Bloomberg)

New scientific data released on Monday confirmed 2015’s place as a milestone year for the Earth’s environment, with both temperatures and greenhouse gases crossing symbolic thresholds with ominous implications for future climate change.

The December 2015 Paris Climate Conference initiated by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) will be attended by leaders of most of the nations of the world. It is being widely touted by scientists, environmental groups as well as progressive global media as our last hope for saving the world from irreversible global warming and the cataclysmic damage caused by the greenhouse effect of carbon and methane pollution of the atmosphere. To achieve this goal at Paris the IPCC has set the target of keeping global warming below 2°Celsius (about 3.7 degrees F.)

A man sunbathes in the midday sun during a heat wave at Glenelg beach on January 13, 2014 in Adelaide, Australia.

Image: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

Extreme weather events, from droughts to floods and heat waves, are some of the most tangible present day impacts of global warming, and they will take center stage in speeches at the upcoming Paris Climate Summit. Now a new report gives leaders pushing to reduce emissions of global warming pollution, including President Obama, additional ammunition

In this Nov. 12, 2014 file photo, President Obama shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Six countries produce nearly 60 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. China and the United States combine for more than two-fifths. The planet’s future will be shaped by what these top carbon polluters do about the heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

With the 2015 UN climate conference looming less than a month away, there’s a strong economic reason for the United States to support a strong international agreement to curb carbon emissions, says a new report: There are trillions of dollars to be gained at home from other countries’ climate mitigation efforts.

Greenhouse gases can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what we do, global warming is going to have some effect on Earth. Here are the 5 deadliest effects of global warming

Miles of pipe for the stalled Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline are stacked in a field near Ripley, Oklahoma.

The Obama administration rejected the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Friday, handing a major victory to environmentalists after a seven-year review process that gave rise to a grassroots climate activist movement. President Barack Obama announced his decision at a morning news conference in the White House Roosevelt Room, alongside Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden.

U.N. climate negotiations begin in Paris in less than a month.Credit: Omarukai/Flickr

Diplomats steeling themselves for a historic round of United Nations climate negotiations remain divided by a handful of stubborn disputes. Discord persists over financial and procedural issues, for example, and over how pollution from farming and deforestation should be addressed alongside energy generation.

The fundamentals of climate science, however, are not among the issues being debated...

Researchers gather empirical data from the bone chilling glaciers in Greenland to assess the impact of climate change amid the looming threat of suspension of government funds for these projects...

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), listens during a news conference after a week long preparatory meeting at the U.N. in Geneva February 13, 2015.

Reuters/Denis Balibouse

A climate change deal to be agreed in Paris in December will not be able to come up with a global carbon price, the United Nations' climate chief, Christiana Figueres, said on Tuesday.

And thanks to their willingness to sucker the world, the world is now a chaotic mess...

eapcontent.ap.orgFILE - In this June 3, 2013 file photo, Pakistani laborers bathe at a leaked water hydrant at the end of a day on the outskirts of Islamabad.

With each degree, unrestrained global warming will singe the overall economies of three quarters of the nations in the world and widen the north-south gap between rich and poor countries, a new economic and science study found... Compared to what it would be without more global warming, the average income globally will shrivel 23 percent at the end of the century if heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution continues to grow at current trajectories, according to a study published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)

With crucial climate talks on the horizon, Keep it in the ground turns its focus to hope for the future – the power to change and the solar revolution. Join us and help make that change happen...

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders urges Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate potential fraud by ExxonMobil over conflicts in what the energy company knew internally and what it said publicly about the causes of climate change.

After revelations that the company pivoted from researching climate change to funding denial, Sen. Bernie Sanders joins calls for a federal probe.